The New Girl
by Penthal
Summary: Sarah Carson, the new girl, is starting Hogwarts in fifth year. The only thing she should be concerned about is making new friends and passing her exams, but then she notices Sirius Black and things go down from there...
1. An Embarrassing Farewell

**Yay! A new fic! This is the result of an annoying Muse that would just not leave me alone and some severe procrastination coming up to my exams (of course).**

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><p>'Are you sure this is right, mum?' I asked, giving my frazzled mother my famous ''everything functioning in there?'' look.<p>

'For the thousandth time, Sarah! Yes! This is how you get to the platform!'

I stared doubtfully at the brick wall my crazy mother was trying to convince me was safe to run through. It was not as if I wasn't used to the weird and wonderful ways of magic, but I was very concerned about the well being of my poor body which, three years previously, suffered from some severe bruising after I had mistakenly ran into a pole-like construction. I swear to God, the thing was not there when I had been running - it just popped out of nowhere!

'Excuse me, please. Watch out there!' A woman with flyaway hair came bustling past with a trunk even bigger than mine. A timid looking girl was trailing along behind her, looking almost as bad as I felt. She looked to be no more than eleven, poor thing. Looks like I wasn't the only one who was shit scared of starting Hogwarts.

Except it was even worse for me - I was starting aged fifteen! Of course, I had been accepted when I was eleven like everyone else, but unfortunately for me, my dad's firm relocated him to France. Talk about bad timing! So in the year I was meant to start Hogwarts, I ended up being stuck in Beauxbatons, not that that was a bad thing. On the contrary, I had a great time there; made great friends, ate delicious French food (except for the snails of course), and best of all, made out with gorgeous French guys.

It was a bitch having to actually learn the French though... I am ashamed to say that I still have not perfected the beautiful language. Yes, even after four years living in France... What can I say? Languages are not my forté.

I watched, with a slight queesy feeling in the pit of my stomach, as the mother and daughter passed through the wall. Oh God, I was going to have to face my fear of running into things. Gulp.

'Come on, Sarah! Honestly, we're going to miss the train!' My mother grabbed my trunk off me, giving me one last exasperated look as she did, and strode up to the wall. I followed grudgingly, swearing under my breath, just because I knew it pissed her off. I shut my eyes and ran in the direction of the wall with my arms stuck out in front of me just for good measure.

Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! 'For goodness sake, Sarah! Open your eyes and stop waving your arms about - you look like a mummy!' I opened my eyes and took in the completely different scene to the one I had just left. Huh, the wall really _was_ magic. My first thought was 'that is one awesome train!' The scarlett steam engine stood magnificently in the old fashioned station as pupils were piling onto it. My arms dropped to my sides as I gazed in wonder at the legendary Hogwarts Express.

'Okay now, sweetie, you sure you have everything?' asked my mother, dragging my trunk over to the train. Seeing me standing there, unmoving from my spot, she dropped the trunk and ran back over to pull me towards the train. Stopping by my trunk, she suddenly threw her arms around my neck an crushed me in a bear-hug. 'Ohh, my Sarah, starting Hogwarts! I've been dreaming about this for years!'

'Mum, please, you're smothering me,' I muttered. I could feel my face turn scarlett as a gorgeous guy just happenned to walk past, an arrogant smirk splayed on his handsome face. Oh God, how could this situation be any worse?

'Oh Sarey-poo! I'm so proud of you,' squeeled my mother. That's how. Oh my God! I could actually hear the guy snort as he loaded his trunk onto the train. I wanted to curl up in a little ball and go to my happy place. Eventually, after what seemed to be a million years, my mother let me go, wiping her eyes on her sleeves and blowing her nose loudly enough for people to turn and stare.

'Oh _God_, mum! Are you _serious_? Can you be _any_ more embarrasssing?'

'I'm sorry, dear. I'm just so happy.' She gave me a watery smile and blew her nose again. I wanted to die. Suddenly the train's whistle blew and people were climbing aboard, saying their final farewells.

'I have to go, mum,' I protested. She had decided to cling herself to me again and I had to resort to prying her from around my waist.

'I know, dear. Be good, now. Stay out of trouble! Listen to your teachers and keep up with your work.'

'Yes, mum. I know. You give me the same lecture every year. I really have to go.' I glanced nervously at the few remaining pupils still on the platform, all with decidedly clingy parents. I gave them an empathetic look.

'All right, Sweetie. Remember, I want at least one letter every week! At least one!'

'Yes, mum! Got to go. Bye! Say bye to dad for me.' I climbed up onto the train and waved, sighing in relief as the train started to move. One of the other girls climbed up with me, her own mother almost as bad as mine. 'Mothers, eh?' I said with a smile. She gave me a strange look before walking off to find a compartment. Okay, so the people were really friendly!

The door onto the train closed so I stuck my head out the window and really wished I hadn't; my mother was running along with the train, waving at me and still crying. Oh Jesus... I gave her a final wave before walking off in search of a compartment, dragging my trunk in tow. It sucks being the new girl.

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><p><strong>Yes, short, as are all of my first chapters... but as I always say, they <em>will<em> get longer! Hope you liked it and I would love to hear opinions (even bad ones!).**


	2. Making Friends and Exploding Trunks

**Another update! I'm on a role :-D **

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><p>Dragging my trunk behind me I walked down the length of the train, peering into the compartments which all seemed to be occupied. I was really starting to wish that I had packed lighter.<p>

'I'll talk to you later, Sev.' Standing outside a compartment was a girl with _the_ most incredible hair I have ever seen talking with a boy with hair not quite as voluminous and shiny, well scratch the shiny part; I could practially see the grease dripping from him.

Just then, the greasy guy turned his head and bore his fathomless black eyes into mine, giving me a look that could rival even the dirtiness of his hair. I involuntarily shuddered. That guy was definitely a creep. We had had a few of those back at Beauxbatons and I had learnt that the wisest thing to do was to stay the hell away from them. I had no idea why the pretty red-head was talking to him; she definitely didn't seem like his type. Oh well, who was I to judge?

The boy slunked back into his compartment and the corridor seemed all the more brighter for it. I started to heave my trunk again when all of a sudden it sprang open, ejecting all of my things across the floor. My stuff covered the floor around me, from my clothes to my tampons.

'Oh God,' I groaned, scrambling to gather my things as quickly as possible. This was just typical, a classic Sarah Carson.

'Do you need some help?' It was the red-head. She gave me a smile and crouched beside me on the floor.

'Thanks,' I replied, snatching up a particularly skimpy bra.

'I'm Lily,' she smiled. 'Lily Evans.'

'Sarah Carson.'

'Nice to meet you, Sarah. I haven't seen you around before. What year are you in?'

'Oh I just transferred from Beauxbatons, I'm going into fifth year.' Lily looked up at me surprised.

'You're not French! Are you? If you are, your English is excellent,' she exclaimed, folding my new robes.

'No, I'm not French,' I laughed. 'My family moved to France when I was eleven. We came back over the summer.'

'That's so exciting!' breathed Lily. 'I've always wanted to go to France, I've been begging my parents for years!'

'Yeah, it's pretty great there, and Beauxbatons is amazing, but I've always wanted to go to Hogwarts. My mum came here and she's told me all about it. I can't wait to see what house I'll be in.'

'You should be in Gryffindor! Then we could share a dorm. You don't snore, do you?' she asked, raising her eyebrow. I laughed and shook my head.

My mother had been a Hufflepuff and I had always just assumed that I would follow in her footsteps, but then again, Lily seemed nice, and I _really_ didn't want to start the year with no friends.

'I'll leave it up to the Hat to decide,' I laughed.

'Well well, Evans. What is going on here?' A guy wearing glasses was leaning against his compartment door. Grinning down at Lily he ran his hand through his already messy hair making it practically stand on end. In my opinion it was not a good look, not unless the ''recently been severely electric-shocked'' look is good.

'What do you want, Potter?' snapped Lily. It was pretty clear that these two were not on friendly terms.

'Just admiring the view. These your knickers, Evans?' he said, pointing his foot to one of my frilliest pairs. Oh the shame...

'Don't be such a pervert, Potter,' she hissed venomously, snatching up my underwear and stuffing them in the trunk.

'Prongs, what the hell are you doing out there?' came a voice from in the compartment. The owner of said voice stuck his head round the door and, on seeing the mess, came out to stand beside ''Prongs''. Of course, it just _had_ to be the smirking guy from earlier.

'Just as I suspected - Evans. Honestly, give it up, mate.' He turned his striking grey eyes on me and that same bloody smirk adorned his face.

'Oh hello, Sarey-poo! These your belongings taking up the floor? _Nice_ squirrel socks,' he said, picking up a particularly embarrassing pair my mum had deemed just too cute to leave.

_Oh God! This was a nightmare!_ Thankfully Lily came to my rescue.

'Do you have to be such an annoying jerk _all_ the time, Black?' Walking up to him, she grabbed the socks out of his hand and wacked him on the head with them.

'Oww, Evans! God, you're right, Prongs - she is fiesty!' He sheltered his head with his arms as Lily increased her ferocity. Flinging my socks into the trunk she suddenly pulled her wand out of her robes.

'Get lost you two, or I'll hex you into oblivion!' This girl was my new hero. The two boys seemed to know that she was not joking and returned to their compartment, not before the taller of the two, Black, gave me another arrogant smirk.

'God, I _hate_ those two!' screeched Lily. 'Come on, Sarah. Let's go.' Levitating my trunk she stormed down the train, with me trailing behind - I did not think it would be wise to go against Lily. She led me to a compartment and dragged my trunk through the door.

'Where've you been, Lily? Oh God, it was Potter, wasn't it?' a voice said from inside.

'What do you think?' replied Lily. I followed her in. 'Oh right. Guys, this is Sarah. She transferred from Beauxbatons.' A chorus of ''Hi, Sarah!'' followed this. It was like being introduced to a primary school class. 'Sarah, this is Renna,' said Lily, pointing to a really pretty girl with light blonde waves and blue eyes. Renna smiled back at me, she seemed nice enough. 'Alice,' she indicated to the next girl who had a pretty, round face and dark hair.

'Nice to meet you, Sarah,' she said, smiling.

'And last but most certainly not least, Josie.' Josie was a tiny wee thing with the most curliest head of hair I have ever seen coming down to her chin. She had a cute little pixie face and kind hazel eyes. She looked to be no more than thirteen compared to the others who all looked my age.

'Hey, nice to meet you all,' I smiled. Oh crap, I was terrible at meeting new people. I just had to play it cool. Rather than doing this though, I just stood there like a dumb fish.

'You want to sit down, Sarah?' asked Renna, smiling. I took the seat next to the window. A silence followed this.

'Sarah's going into fifth year too,' said Lily, obviously trying to break the tension.

'You're all in fifth year?' I asked, looking doubtfully at Josie and mentally face-palming myself even before the words came out of my mouth. Way to go, Sarah. Insulting them in the first few minutes of meeting them. New record!

'I know,' sighed Josie. 'I look like a first year. Blame my midget of a mother.' The other girls all laughed and so I, of course, awkwardly joined in.

'Well you're going to love Hogwarts,' exclaimed Lily. 'I _do_ recommend joining us in Gryffindor, though. We may have Black and Potter in our year, but apart from that, we are the best.'

'Those were the guys outside, weren't they?' I asked.

'Unfortunately, yes,' Lily sighed. 'You just met Hogwart's most infamous idiots.'

'Oh there not that bad, Lily,' Renna said. 'You just don't like Potter cause he's in love with you.'

'He's not in love with me. He just wants what he can't have, like every other male.'

'Meet Lily the cynic,' Alice said to me, laughing and causing Lily to glare at her.

'So they're in our year?' I asked.

'Unfortunately, yes,' sighed Lily again.

'Oh, Lily. You need to lighten up,' Josie teased. 'They make life _very_ interesting at Hogwarts. I actually missed them over the summer, you know?' Lily raised her eyebrow at this.

'You can't _miss_ the Marauders!' she said, sounding thoroughly disgusted.

'The Marauders?'

'Yeah, it's what they call themselves,' Lily replied, sitting back in her seat and smirking. 'Sad, I know. Remus and Peter are part of their little gang too, which is a shame because they're not too bad.' Lily suddenly gave me a puzzled look. 'Why did Black call you Sarey-poo?'

I could feel my face grow hot with embarrassment. 'My mum calls me that when she's feeling particularly nasty. That guy just happened to overhear.' The other girls gave me sympathetic yet still amused looks.

'That's too bad, Sarah. You do realise that he will call you that forever now?' Renna said to me.

'Shit,' I muttered, 'just what I needed to start the new year.'

We spent the remainder of the journey talking, mostly about the Marauders; for someone who claimed to hate them so much, Lily sure did love talking about them, well, more complaining about them. As it darkened outside I could feel myself grow more nervous, but also quite excited. I was finally going to see Hogwarts for the first time! This was going to be interesting...

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><p><strong>Still short but I'm getting there! Please leave a review and I will love you forever :-D<strong>


	3. The Sorting

**I know it's been a while but trust me when I say that I have been _very_ busy.**

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><p>'Firs' years! Over 'ere! Firs' years!' A giant of a man stood infront of me; his deep voice booming above the noise of hundreds of students gathering on the platform. A massive beard covered the lower half of his face; it was the kind of beard that, should you stick your hand in it, though God knows why you would, you may not see it again for a while. His size, however, didn't bother me in the slightest; I was used to Madame Maxime afterall...<p>

'That's Hagrid,' said Lily, coming up behind me. 'He's great; I'll have to introduce you sometime.'

'Ooh, I see you've met Lily's secret crush,' teased Renna, climbing down from the train. Lily whacked Renna on the shoulder, giving her a look that would probably make me piss myself; I once again needed to remind myself of Lily's fierce temper.

'Don't be so disgusting, Renna! He's just a friend! Maybe if you would come down and visit him with me once in a while you might actually realise how nice he is.'

'Lily likes Hagrid! Lily likes Hagrid!' sang Josie while skipping alongside Lily, whose face was quickly turning the same colour as her hair. It was really quite fascinating to behold...

'Would you lot shut up! Of course I don't _like_ Hagrid; he's just a friend!'

'We're only teasing, Lily,' Alice laughed, putting her arm around her embarrassed friend. 'And you know Renna's going to be torture for days! She's built up her mean sense of humour over the summer and is now unleashing it on us!' Renna gave us an evil smirk which quickly turned to a rather sour one as she looked behind us.

'So, Evans? I hear you have a thing for Hagrid? Your rejection of me all these years is finally becoming clear to me.' Potter's lanky form came into view, which was quickly followed by Black and two other guys I hadn't had the privelege of meeting yet.

'You do realise what that means though, don't you, Prongs?' asked Black, raising his eyebrow at his friend. 'After comparing both you and Hagrid, our dear Evans has come to the conclusion that Hagrid is a much more appealing specimen.' Potter gave Black a thunderous look, one that could even rival Lily's; those two were more similar than Lily seemed to think, and I had only known them for a few hours!

Let's go,' muttered Lily, storming off towards an empty carriage. I could hear Potter and his friends laughing behind us as I climbed into the carriage, quickly followed by Alice, Josie and Renna. To my great surprise and shock the carriage started to move of (seemingly) its own accord.

'Don't worry; they're supposed to do that,' Alice laughed after seeing my shock. 'We have no idea what pulls them. Though-' she added as an afterthought, 'Lily does have her suspicions... She just won't tell us.'

Lily mumbled under her breath, crossing her arms. She was clearly still in a bad mood. And I thought _I_ had a bad temper.

'Potter really gets to you, doesn't he?' I asked her.

'He's going to spread it around the school that I like Hagrid, isn't he?' she growled, seemingly ignoring my question and continuing whatever little rant had been going on inside that red head of hers.

'I wouldn't worry about it, Lils,' sighed Josie. 'After all, he wants everyone to believe that you're in love with _him_, not Hagrid!'

'Besides,' added Renna, 'Black's probably the one who'd spread the rumours; he has a real nasty streak on him.'

Alice fired her a _''you're really not helping look''_ before saying, 'Let's just forget about them. This is our first night back, remember? Plus, we've got the feast coming up. I don't know about you guys but I'm starving!' My stomach rumbled in agreement. I had heard only great things about the start of term feast from my mother. My mouth was starting to water just thinking about it.

I got my first sight of Hogwarts as the carriages rolled in through the large, iron gates. The impressive castle towered into the sky, the countless windows lit up with hundreds of candles; illuminating the castle against the inky black sky. I could feel my breath catch in my throat as I took in the wonderous sight.

'Pretty cool, right?' Renna asked, nudging me with her elbow. I could only nod in response. Hogwarts took my breath away. Of course, Beauxbatons was incredibly beautiful, the glittering palace would always be a place of importance for me. However, Hogwarts was something new altogether, though, not literally, seeing as Hogwarts was ancient compared to Beauxbatons. But that was one of the main reasons why I had always dreamt of going to the famous castle; it was so full of legend and mystery, my mother had told me that you could live there for years and never know all of its secrets.

The carriages stopped in the courtyard in front of the large doors leading into the castle. I was walking up to the entrance with my new-found friends when a girl with long, honey-coloured hair scraped back into a ponytail strode up to me.

'Hello, you must be Sarah,' she stated, sticking out her hand for me to shake.

'Yeah, that's me,' I replied while she shook my hand with much enthusiasm, a big grin spread across her face.

'It's very nice to meet you, Sarah. My name is Jessica. Jessica Hawthorne.' I could hear Renna groan from somewhere behind me. 'I am Head Girl of Hogwarts,' she said smugly, tapping a badge pinned to her uniform, 'and therefore I am responsible for getting you settled into Hogwarts. I have been doing my research and I understand that the rules and regime of Beauxbatons are much different compared to here at Hogwarts. It is my responsibility for making sure that your transition is as easy as possible.'

I could hear Renna whisper behind me, 'Is she being serious?'

Jessica glared at Renna over my shoulder. 'As a matter of fact, Renna Marley, I am being serious; I am always serious about my duties as Head Girl,' she said with a flick of her pony-tail.

Renna scoffed, rolling her blue eyes. 'You've only been Head Girl for one day now, Hawthorne.'

Jessica lifted her pointy little chin proudly and turned back to me. 'If you would come with me now please, Sarah. I have been instructed to take you to Professor McGonagall.' She turned swiftly on her heal, the end of her pony-tail just missing Renna's face, and walked off into the crowd. I smiled meekly at the girls, who were trying not to laugh (apart from Renna who was scowling at the back of Jessica's head), and tried to catch up with Jessica.

'Professor McGonagall; she's head of Gryffindor, right?' I asked, straining to keep up with Jessica's ridiculously fast pace, as she led me through the masses of students migrating into the Great Hall.

'That's correct. She's very strict, very efficient. One of my favourite teachers, in fact.' _I wonder why_, I thought sarcastically. 'If you follow the rules and work hard I'm sure you'll get on fine with her though.' She led me to a room filled with (what I assumed to be) first-years. 'I'm sure that Professor McGonagall will be along shortly.'

'Wait - what? You're leaving?' I turned to Jessica who was just about to leave the room; leaving me stranded in a room full of little people...

'No need to worry; Professor McGonagall will sort you out when she arrives, which I'm sure will be soon; she's not one to be late.' This Jessica was extremely annoying. 'I need to get to the feast; it would not look well for me to arrive late; I _do_ have standards to uphold, afterall, especially now that I'm Head Girl.'

'Right, okay. I won't keep you, then.' She gave me another pompous smile then turned and left. 'I feel sorry for the person that ends up with her,' I muttered under my breath. I turned and examined the faces of the first-years who were all huddled in the centre of the classroom. Most of them looked terrified, though some were arrogantly boasting about what houses they were sure to be sorted into. _Must be the purebloods_, I thought; they were always the cocky little shits. I then mentally slapped myself; stop being so prejudiced, Sarah!

The door to the classroom opened and a tall, stern looking woman with jet black which was scraped back (rather like Jessica's) into a tight bun. I had no doubt in my mind that this was Jessica's precious Professor McGonagall.

'Excuse me, first-years. Your attention please,' said Professor McGonagall, her voice strict and demanding attention. 'First of all I would like to welcome you to Hogwarts; I hope that your time here will be a pleasant one. In a few moments you will be lead into the Great Hall where you will each be sorted into your Houses. These Houses will be like your homes while you stay at Hogwarts; the housemates your family.' McGonagall continued to explain the Houses and what was now expected of us as Hogwart's pupils. I listened to the stern voice of McGonagall, all the while trying to calm my stomach which was going crazy; it wouldn't be could to suddenly come down with a raging case of nervous diarrhoea on the way up to the sorting. I knew what was coming, and while the sorting didn't sound all that scary, the thought of walking up and being the centre of attention of hundreds of people scared the shit out of me, especially as I was five years too late.

I suddenly realised that McGonagall had stopped talking and was assembling the first-years into alphabetical order. 'Carson Sarah,' she read out from a long list. 'Ah yes, you are the new girl. I trust that Jessica welcomed you? She will be there for you to help you settle in.' She gave me a stern gaze, though I got the impression that she was trying to be welcoming...

All too soon we were making our way towards the Great Hall. I could hear the chatter of hundreds of pupils coming from the other side of the big, wooden doors. I gulped nervously. Suddenely they opened and Professor McGonagall was striding up the length of the hall, between two sets of long tables which seated the rest of the pupils. They all looked at me curiously. Well, I did stick out like a sore thumb; I was almost twice the height of most of them and was clearly no twelve year old. I passed Lily, Renna, Josie and Alice on the way up. They all smiled and waved and I could feel the knot in my stomach loosening (just a bit).

Professor McGonagall started calling out names and one by one the first-years took their place on the stool and were each sorted into houses. 'Carson Sarah,' called out McGonagall. Gulp. This was it. I had been waiting for this moment all summer. I slowly walked up to the stool, I could feel hundreds of eyes fixed on me; it was very unnerving.

Eventually, after what seemed to last lifetimes, I made it to the stool and placed the legendary hat on my head. It slipped over my eyes and I was immediately thrown into darkness.

_Carson, eh?_ came the voice of the Hat. _Never had a Carson before. Oh, I see; muggle father. Ah, so your mother was in Hufflepuff. Yes - I can see it now; you would make an excellent Hufflepuff - very loyal. Smart, yes, but not smart enough; definitely not a Ravenclaw..._ (He was lucky that I wasn't one to take offense easily...)

Gryffindor, I thought. _I want to be in Gryffindor._

_Gryffindor, eh? I suppose there is courage there. But is it enough? I can definitely see you as a Hufflepuff._

_Gryffindor. I want to be in Gryffindor._

_If you insist then. I guess it's-_

GRYFFINDOR! the Hat shouted.

I could hear the thunderous applause coming from the Gryffindor table, which I made a bee-line for, wanting to get out of the spotlight as fast as possible. I practically ran over to Lily and sat down beside her.

'Congratulations!' she squeeled. 'I knew you were a Gryffindor!' The other girls joined in on congratulating before we stopped to watch the rest of the sorting. It was actually quite interesting to watch without having the nerves of knowing that soon you would be up there.

The rest of the evening passed very well indeed. After the sorting Dumbledore, who I was thrilled to finally see for myself, gave a short speech before welcoming us all to eat to our hearts content, which I did only too well.  
>After the feast my friends brought me up to the Gryffindor tower, and then on to the dorm we would be sharing.<p>

I suddenly found myself being utterly exhausted and before I knew it I was fast asleep in my new bed, just happy to finally be at Hogwarts.

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><p><strong>I know that once again the ending is really abrupt, but it is currently 2:16 am and I am exhausted. Plus my laptop's nearly out of batteries and I am too tired to go down and get my charger... Anyway, hope it was alright and I would love to hear some more opinions. I don't even care if they're horrible! Anything will do :D<strong>


	4. A Pimply Problem

_Wow, ok so it's definitely been a while... I would blame this on a busy schedule but really I'm just a bit lazy. So still not a lot of plot yet but it _is_ coming so you'll just have to bear with me. I have a few other fics in mind that have pretty big plots so this one is a nice little break from the doom, gloom and oh-so-much angst of the others._

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><p>'Marley get your butt out of bed right now! Some of us actually want to eat breakfast this morning!' Lily was storming about the room, grabbing various items and shoving them roughly in her already-overflowing bag.<p>

'Calm down, Lils,' Alice mumbled sleepily from her bed. 'We've got loads of time. Breakfast doesn't end for another thirty minutes.'

'Well I want to get food before bloody Potter scoffs the lot,' huffed Lily. 'Besides, it's the first day back and it wouldn't hurt to be early for once. Not after last year when _someone_' - Lily glared accusingly across the room at the lump that was Renna - 'made us ten minutes late for our first lesson.' A large snore erupted from Renna's bed which I took to be her response.

Stiffling my laughter I turned back to the mirror. The sight that greeted me was not a pretty one. My usually limp dirty-blond hair had decided to try something new this morning and was sticking up all over the place. But the disorderly matt on top of my head was not what was bothering me. You see, sitting right between my two brown eyes was one of the hugest, most sickeningly red spots I had ever seen in my life. It even had a creamy white head that looked just about ready to burst to top it all off.

'Oh. My. God,' I squealed, bringing my hand up to cover the monster that had taken over my head. This turned out to be a bad idea as the bloody thing _really hurt_!

'What? What?' Josie jumped up from her bed looking startled.

'Oh Jesus Christ,' whispered Renna. 'Look at your face!' All eyes immediately turned on me. Just fantastic.

'It's only a spot. Don't be so dramatic, Renna,' said Lily, in an obvious attempt to make the gargantuan spot on my face seem menial, though the look in her eyes told the truth. Not only did I have an obstruction on my face that would have made even the boldest of children cry, but to top it all off I managed to get it on my first morning at a brand new school. I swear, I should have been born on Friday 13th with the luck my life threw at me...

Renna covered her face in her hands to try and disguise her laughter. 'Oh stop it, you,' sighed Alice at Renna. 'I remember perfectly well the time Sammy Thompson in the year above gave you pimples that covered your entire face for a week! You definitely weren't laughing then!'

That shut Renna up as a frown marred her pretty face. 'Oh yeah... I'd forgotten about that. I still have to get that troll back.'

'Well, there's nothing that can be done about it now. We still have to get down for breakfast. You know what the first morning's like - it's hectic!' Lily continued her frazzled stomping around the room as she attempted to find her belongings. Josie gave me a sympathetic look before continuing dressing for school.

I stared hopelessly at myself in the mirror. This was just bloody perfect. 'For God's sake! If you're going to do the kicked puppy look I suppose I could try finding my pimple vanishing cream.' Renna had never looked more beautiful to me.

'What! You're only mentioning this now?'Lily turned her furious gaze to Renna. 'You can be really evil sometimes, did you know that? Leaving poor Sarah worrying like that when you had a solution the whole time!'

'Hey, at least I can help her!' Renna put her hands up in defense 'You're too worried about getting down for freaking _breakfast_ in time!' I could sense the beginnings of a heated row as the two continued to bicker back and forth.

'You know, you would think the two hated each other, but they're actually really good friends,' Josie whispered in my ear, watching the scene with amusement.

'Shut up, you two,' snapped Alice coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head. 'Renna go and get this miracle cream you claim to have, and for crying out loud, Lily, we've got loads of time left. We're not going to miss breakfast!' Lily flushed and Renna stuck her tongue out at her before jumping up and rummaging through her makeup bag.

An assortment of lipsticks and mascaras came flying at us from all directions as Renna managed to fit the length of her arm down her tiny little bag. 'Aha', she cried, her face lighting up. 'Found you, you beauty.' She pulled it out with a flourish and gave it a dramatic kiss before chucking it at me.

'Ow,' I yelped as it bounced off my head.

'Oops, sorry,' she giggled. 'Looks like we found ourselves a new Gryffindor seeker, girls!'

I snatched the cream from the floor, trying not to look too desperate. Oh God, please let this work. I plopped a dollop of the foul smelling stuff on the spot and turned to Renna. 'How long does this stuff stay on for?'

'No idea,' she claimed 'Never needed it before. It was my idiot brother's idea of a funny present.'

'I'd take it off now, if I was you,' Josie mumbled, looking worriedly at my forehead. I snapped back to the mirror and scrubbed the cream from my face. The big red spot had receded to basically nothing. Phew...

'Well that's all sorted, then,' smiled Lily. 'Can we _please_ go down for breakfa-' Lily stopped mid sentence as her eyes were suddenly drawn to my forehead.

'What?' I squeaked. 'What's wro-' I caught my reflection in the mirror and felt my stomach drop to the floor. 'SHIT!' The spot, which had for a few seconds turned minuscule began to slowly grow, larger than it had been before the cream. I watched in absolute horror as deep red slowly grew out and spread across my entire forehead. The spreading came to a slow stop as we all watched, transfixed. I let out a squeak of disbelief as I took in my appearance.

The red splotch that had taken over my face had thankfully stopped. Though before I could start bawling my eyes out it had one more little surprise for me. Apparently covering half of my face in a huge red blob wasn't enough. Oh no, it then had to go on to slowly separate until, within one minute, the red blob had turned into hundreds of tiny little pimples.

'Holy. Shit,' came Renna's dumb-founded remark. 'I had no idea it would do that...'

'Renna!' shrieked Lily. 'What have you done?!'

Renna's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. 'Oh yes, because I did this to her,' she said in a voice heavily applied with sarcasm.

'Well it was your cream, wasn't it?'

'You can't blame Renna, Lily' sighed Alice, always the one to keep the peace.

'Would you guys just shut up! I don't care who did it; just help me get rid of the things!' I shrieked, clutching my bird's nest hair.

'Okay, Okay maybe there'll be a spell or something?' suggested Josie, shrugging her tiny shoulders. 'I could check some books.' She made her way to the small bookcase in the corner and began to quickly scan the titles of the various spell books lined up.

'Leave it, Josie, there's no time. We'll just have to try make-up.' Alice summoned a little pink bag and dug out a bottle of concealer. With practiced hands she gently spread it evenly across my forehead, sat back, and smiled at her handy-work. 'Perfect.'

I turned on the stool to face the mirror and true enough, my forehead looked clear with just a _slight_ orange tint to it, but I could live with that.

'Oh, wait. Oh dear.' Alice sat back on her stool and looked worriedly at my forehead. I found myself groaning for what must have been the tenth time that morning.

'What? What is it now?!'

'It's not _that_ bad.' Lily's tone said it all for me. Turning back round to face the mirror I discovered that the spots (clever little things that they were) had protruded out from the makeup and were now redder that ever. I could have cried.

'Okay, maybe we should just go to Madame Promfrey,' sighed Alice, clearly at a loss as to what to do.

'Who's that?' I asked, cringing. _Oh God, please don't let it be one of the teachers. Last thing I want is to be introduced as the spotty new kid._

'She's the school nurse ' replied Lily. 'And don't worry; she's seen far worse than this before.' This girl could clearly read minds. 'But anyway, it's too late to go to her now. We have to get our timetables. We'll just have to wait till after classes. Here - ' Lily reached down the side of her bed and pulled a long red scarf out of her suitcase - 'just use this. Tie it round your head; it'll cover everything.'

'Yeah, she'll just be that weird new girl who thinks going around with a red scarf tied around her head is a good look,' quipped Rena, rolling her blue eyes.

'Well I can't think of anything else so unless you've got some brilliant plan in that blonde head of yours then shut up,' Lily said loftily as she tied the scarf around my forehead. It was incredibly light and seemed to be made of some silken material. 'Just remember who's responsible for this in the first place.'

Renna made to argue but Alice interjected just in time. 'Don't start with that again! Can we please just go down to breakfast? I already have a headache.'

Somehow I was of the opinion that my own head problems were just a little bit worse than hers...

* * *

><p>The Great Hall was exactly as it had been last night: packed full of students, the sound of excited chatter coming from all directions, and smelling mouth-wateringly fantastic. This was a side of Hogwarts I had greatly come to appreciate in the short time I had been here: the food. It's not that I find French food abhorrent - most of it anyway - but you just couldn't beat the standard of delectable dishes that appeared on the Hogwarts' tables. It was any food fanatic's dream, and believe me, I liked my food.<p>

The smells of many different breakfast dishes assaulted my nose as I sat between my dorm mates, and normally this would have transformed me into a frenzied, drooling stomach with legs, but not this day. My nervous stomach from last night had returned.

I watched with growing dread as Professor McGonagall slowly made her way down the Gryffindor table, handing out timetables and occasionally giving out snap comments concerning certain pupils' state of dress, or rather undress - as was the case of Black and Potter.

They had each taken off their outer robes to reveal that they were wearing nothing more than their sleeping wear beneath, consisting of an old T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts each. James Potter even had on a long dressing gown over his pajamas; a deep crimson in colour and complete with the Gryffindor lion on the chest.

'So sorry, Professor, but we were told it was casual Monday this morning,' James Potter said, adding to his mislead tone with a poorly executed innocent smile plastered on his face.

'Yeah, Remus here told us it was a new tradition; and he's a Prefect,' smirked Black.

Remus nearly choked on his cereal. 'No I did not!' he exclaimed, looking flushed. 'Don't you dare drag _me_ into this!' Sirius Black winked at him - a friendly gesture that was clearly not returned judging by the annoyed scowl Lupin was sending back.

'Enough!' snapped McGonagall, effectively silencing the amused giggles of the surrounding viewers. 'Ten points from Gryffindor each! And unless you wish to receive a detention I suggest you both go and dress appropriately! Immediately!'

'Better go, James,' Sirius said in a grim tone. 'We don't want to tarnish our impeccable record, after all.'

James nodded to his friend in an equally serious manner. 'You're right, Sirius mate. Can you imagine the scandal if we both got detention on the first day back?'

'I don't even want to think about it, mate,' Sirius replied, shaking his head slowly.

I could see Pettigrew looking on in amusement while Lupin was clearly trying to concentrate on his bowl of cereal, though the twitch of a smile was evident.

'Out now, both of you! Or it will be another ten points each.' McGonagall's voice cracked like a whip and the two boys jumped up from the bench.

'Alright, alright, Professor, we're going!' Potter held up his hands in an apologetic manner, though it was slightly ruined by the large grin taking over his face. The two made their way down the length of the hall; Sirius Black's bum in boxers earning him many appreciative glances along with a few wolf-whistles, while Potter's long red dressing gown billowed impressively out behind him as he strutted towards the door.

Laughter broke out at the table as McGonagall moved on but mine quickly died in my throat as she stopped at our group of girls. 'Timetables, girls,' she said crisply, handing out white sheets of parchment to each of us in turn. 'Miss Carson you've opted to take Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and Muggle Studies, is that correct?'

She looked up at me as she handed me the parchment and her eyes were immediately drawn to the red scarf that had taken over my head. 'What on earth are you wearing, Carson?' she demanded in a bemused tone. 'Take that ridiculous thing off at once. I've had quite enough of inappropriate school-wear for one day!'

My brain blanked as I tried to think of a plausible excuse. Luckily for me Renna stepped in.

'She has a - erghm - situation, Professor.'

McGonagall's eyebrows arched in disbelief. 'A situation?'

'Yeah, you see she got into a little _spot_ of bother this morning.' Renna nudged Lily playfully in the ribs who rolled her eyes in return.

'Her forehead is covered in spots, Professor, and she wants to keep it hidden,' cut in Alice.

McGonagall peered at me curiously. 'May I see, Miss Carson?' Glancing around the vicinity to ensure no one was watching I quickly pulled up the scarf - the look on McGonagall's face told me she had seen quite enough.

'Very well, Carson. You may keep the scarf on today but as soon as lessons are finished you go straight to Madame Promfrey, is that understood?'

My heart skipped in relief. 'Yeah, thanks, Professor.' I grinned in triumph as she walked down the table to a group of first years who all looked just about ready to piss themselves.

'Well then, aren't we all happy now?' grinned Renna. 'Lily got her breakfast, Sarah got to wear her scarf, and I get to watch that little first year burst into tears.' We all turned to where she was pointing, and sure enough Professor McGonagall was snapping at a little girl with a big red bow in her hair. Apparently there had been one too many uniform mishaps for McGonagall this morning... 'I just love a happy ending,' Renna sighed.

* * *

><p><em>I know, pretty pointless, but I'm just putting in fillers till I get the plot fully formed. Hope it's not too bad and good news is I'm off for summer now so I'll be able to update more :-)<em>


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